L2 processing of filled gaps: Non-native brain activity not modulated by proficiency and working memory
Date
2022-03-02
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism
Abstract
This paper investigates how late L2 learners resolve filler-gap dependencies (FGD) in real-time and how proficiency and working memory (WM) modulate their brain responses in an event-related potential (ERP) experiment. A group of intermediate to highly proficient Mandarin Chinese learners of English listened to sentences such as “The zebra that the hippo kissed *the camel on the nose ran far away,” in which the extra noun phrase “the camel” created a ‘filled-gap’ effect. The results show that although L2 behavioral responses are comparable to native speakers and are positively correlated with proficiency and WM span, the brain responses to the filled gap are qualitatively different. Importantly, L2 processing patterns did not become more nativelike with higher proficiency levels or greater WM capacity. Specifically, while the native speakers exhibited a P600 typically observed for syntactic violations and repair, the L2 group produced a prefrontal-central positivity. Similar ERPs have previously been reported to reflect domain-general attentional and non-structural-based processes, suggesting that the L2 group has a reduced sensitivity to structural requirements for gap positing in the online resolution of FGDs. Our findings are discussed in light of various proposals accounting for L1-L2 processing differences, including the Shallow Structure Hypothesis.
Description
© John Benjamins Publishing Company. For (re-)use permissions, please contact the Rights & Permissions department of John Benjamins Publishing Company. This article was originally published in Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism. The version of record is available at: https://doi.org/10.1075/lab.20058.don
Keywords
L2 sentence processing, filler gap dependencies, ERP, individual factors, shallow structure hypothesis
Citation
Dong, Zhiyin Renee, Chao Han, Arild Hestvik, and Gabriella Hermon. “L2 Processing of Filled Gaps: Non-Native Brain Activity Not Modulated by Proficiency and Working Memory.” Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1075/lab.20058.don.